With a trip that I was going to be able to fish on, I was all ready to go. I may be
offshore a hundred times a year, but rarely get to do much actually fishing myself,
so this was a Fun trip. We had members of LeeNoga.com (Shrimping Forum),
on the trip, along with Joesph Harrell of "Big Tail Adventures" to shoot some video
for a fishing show. Trolling was the main game plan, however there was some
uncertainty in the water quality following the hurricane.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz127/ACMEVentures/083111SunrisePC.jpg
We ran fast out to 120', to take a look. Water was pretty dirty, but nearing structure,
we deployed lines anyway. Last trip out before the storm, we caught Kings and
Mahi here. About 20 minutes into the run, heading east, the water started clearing,
and a Fish was on the line. First up was Mark. This fish took a couple hundred yards
of line before the fight could even begin. It was a long hard fight, with a little progress
made, and more line back out. as progress was being made, and about 20 minutes and
halfway in, the line went slack. We really don't know what it was, but large King or
Wahoo was the likely fish. Back to fishing we went.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz127/ACMEVentures/083111FishOn2.jpg
We continued East towards the weather buoy, with a few Cudas caught and released.
The Buoy got no results so we continue east. A lone Flying fish, the first seen this trip,
had us make a circle around, and it payed off. The drag screamed, and it was Toms
turn at the rod. This proved to be a long battle, but patience prevailed as a nice Wahoo
was in the boat and on ice! Fishing continued, with more Cuda's being caught.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz127/ACMEVentures/083111FishOn1.jpg
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz127/ACMEVentures/083111Wahoo3.jpg
Another big hookup came, and it was my turn at the rod. This was a good sized fish,
but only a few minutes into the fight it started to get easier...Cuda. It was good sized
however, in the 35lb range, so still a good fight. Photo taken and it was released, we
continued east.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz127/ACMEVentures/083111BigCuda.jpg
A week weed line, the first of the day, was found at 220'. We worked it a little while
with nada, so we ran deeper to 260'. Water was clean Blue, but little sign of bait, weeds or
debris, so we decided to run back to where we catching fish. The bite seemed to really fall off,
even the Cuda's stopped biting. We found some flyers, but the water was getting dirty, and
we were getting nothing. To the reef we went, but with the dirty water, we did not know
what to expect. It too was pretty dead.
http://i820.photobucket.com/albums/zz127/ACMEVentures/083111Fishng1.jpg
With dark clouds to the west, and time getting late we made our run to Port Canaveral.
We did catch a lot of fish, and where the icebox did not reflect Quantity, it did have Quality.
We cleaned the Wahoo, bagged it, and started thinking about how it was going to taste for dinner!